Gavaskars dubious distinction
It is a well known fact that Sunil Gavaskar holds the dubious distinction of batting the entire 60 overs to score 36 not out. It was reported that at no stage did he make an effort to try and win the match.
That match took place on 7th June 1975 and England scored 334 in their allotted 60 years. The point to be noted here is that an average score for a 60 over match used to be in the region of 150 to 200 those days, which means the score posted by England was well out of reach of India. Another thing to be noted is India were minnows then. A like to like comparision in modern day would be Australia getting 500 runs in 50 overs batting first and everybody expecting Zimbabve to try to chase it.
Another point to be noted is those days a team like India, lasting 60 overs without getting all out was an achievement and India were successful in that aspect in that match. Also Gavaskar faced 174 balls only i.e almost half of the deliveries. No other batsman who faced the balance 186 deliveries ever made an attempt to win the match as India ended up with 132 in their full quote of 60 overs.
A look at comparative tables below shows Gavaskar was not as slow or selfish as reported in media.
Gavaskar has a career strike rate of 62.26 per 100 deliveries in one dayers and the strike rate of players who were considered match winners in Gavaskars era are given below:-
52.89 Gundappa Vishwanth, who was considered a very attacking player
57.70 Mohinder Amarnath, who won the World Cup for India
55.93 Geoff Marsh who formed a famous match winning combination with David Boom
63.09 Desmond Haynes who formed a destructive pair with Greenidge
64.92 Gordon Greenidge, who was considered on par with Vivian Richards as a match winner.
Strikes rates of few players who were rated much higher than Gavaskar
55.63 W V Ram, the stylish stroke player
59.15 S Ramesh, another free flowing player
59.46 Mark Taylor
60.26 Manoj Prabhakar, India's famous utility player
61.07 Shastri, one of India's better all rounders
63.31 Rameez Raja, considered a attacking player
64.30 Sanjay Manjrekar
If you look at the strike rates both during Gavaskars era and younger players who came after his retirement, it was a case of Gavaskar being misreported by media, and misunderstood by people.
Regards
Satish
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